SCOTLAND No.2 McGhee is looking forward to a front row view of the Germans' World Cup celebrations - but he is determined to spoil the party when the action gets underway.

THE World Cup may have ended but Planet Football keeps on spinning and in September
Scotland will be at its epicentre.

Destiny has decreed our national team will pitch up in Dortmund to face newly-crowned champions Germany and suddenly a game that might not have attracted too much attention outside the borders of the two nations will attract interest across the globe.

Kicking off a qualifying campaign for the European Championship away to the Germans would have been tough anyway, but unless Joachim Low’s men are still on the batter two months after the events in Rio on Sunday, things have just got a whole lot harder.

Germany are never short on confidence at the worst of times so heaven knows what they’ll be like now they are emboldened by the tag of world champions. But yesterday, Mark McGhee was not for meekly accepting that the result is a foregone conclusion.

The Scotland assistant manager flew out with Celtic as a radio pundit for their Champions League qualifier in Iceland and is clearly excited at the prospect of the few months that lie ahead – particularly with confirmation that the English will be in Glasgow on November 18, hard on the heels of our qualifier with the Republic of Ireland.

It all adds up to three months that will quicken the pulse of a nation that has had its nose pressed up against the television screen to watch from the outside a World Cup that took the breath away. Now it is our chance to be part of something special and Gordon Strachan’s No.2 insists we are ready.

Daily Record

Mark McGhee.

McGhee said: “Before the World Cup, I fancied Germany could be champions and half hoped they would be because of the fixture.

“I imagine they’ll parade the World Cup and that’ll make it an great occasion. Maybe it will distract them a little, maybe they’ll take their eye off the ball!

“We’ve got the Celtic players who are used to playing on really big stages and will have no fear. We also have guys who either played in the English Premier League or still do and have experience of going up against these global stars week in, week out. It’s not an alien environment. They are not going somewhere where they will be in shock or starstruck. They will be excited but up for it.”

German manager Low believes his team will dominate football but McGhee doesn’t agree.

He said: “They are going to be at the forefront for the foreseeable future but I’m not sure it is easy to win successive tournaments. Spain will come back, others are getting better and England have a group of young players who are getting better. It will be harder for them to maintain the success they’ve had.

“But they’ve turned the corner from the years they had when they were inconsistent and they’ve set up a programme that will see them be consistently in semis and finals for the next couple of tournaments.”

And he insisted playing Germany first will be handy in the respect that the other teams in the group, whom we will be battling with for second place in all probability, will have to show their hands before Scotland take them on.

McGhee said: “We’re not certain what the other teams’ line-ups will be – Poland and Georgia particularly.

“Poland have used something like 60 players in their last half a dozen games but by the time we come to play them we’ll have seen them a couple of times.”

McGhee pinpointed the return to fitness of Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher as vital, particularly as Strachan will almost certainly be without captain Scott Brown, who is out for three months with a hamstring injury.

The assistant boss said: “Over the past six or seven years Darren has been one of the top Scotland players. It’s great he’s back and in the absence of Scott Brown, even more so.”

McGhee is delighted keeper Craig Gordon has signed for Celtic. He said: “It is brilliant news for us and good news for Celtic because if he is fit and stays healthy, they’ve signed a fantastic goalie.

“We have Gilks, McGregor and Marshall. We now have four fantastic keepers to choose from so it’s great.”

McGhee is delighted Scotland will face England at Parkhead and believes the performance in our 3-2 defeat Wembley last year instilled in the players the confidence they’ve taken into recent matches.

He said: “Although we lost late on we all felt for an hour we matched them. We scored a couple of goals and it was a positive experience.

“We don’t want to play them every year any more than they want to play us but the fact we are comfortable playing each other and the fixture being back is a good thing because we can call each other at any time.”